Essay 106 • Nov 28th 2016

by José Alvarado

On August 2016 an uncontrollable desire to leave my home of NYC came over me. It may have been a mixture of the confining buildings, along with the culture of the city becoming stale to me. I wanted to breathe the Pacific Northwest's crisp air, feel it's warm sun on my shoulders, and see the stars clearly from my tent. My mind made its decision, a swift and quick one.

I flew into Seattle and spent ten days driving down the 101 freeway, around the Olympic Peninsula's temperate rain forests, down through the Redwoods of California, and lastly to my final destination of Santa Cruz, California. I made an effort take all of my journey in, as I'm a believer that we, as humans, are wired to travel and to seek new stimuli. The photographs in this series are the frozen moments in time as I journeyed and saw this beautiful landscape for the first time.

José Alvarado

Always expressing himself through the means of imagery, an eighteen-year-old José Alvarado would discover the photographic medium and soon after make it his favorite form of expression. His recent work focuses on documenting his long time friend’s fight with multiple sclerosis at the age of 22, and its effect on his everyday life.